


Five things that never happened to Carrie Kelley

by SharpestRose



Series: Things that never happened to the Robins [5]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman (Millerverse), Batman Beyond
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-29
Updated: 2011-06-29
Packaged: 2017-10-20 20:22:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/216754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharpestRose/pseuds/SharpestRose





	Five things that never happened to Carrie Kelley

i. _Returns_

"What's your name?" the man - the _Bat_ man - asks. He's probably in a lot of pain.

The car's not exactly quiet, and Carrie's kinda surprised at how easily she can hear him. Maybe she's listening real hard.

"Carrie," she answers. "Carrie Kelley."

Then she pauses. No, that's not right. It used to be right. Now, she's someone else. "Robin," she amends.

"Mine's Jason," Batman answers her.

-

She's in the Cave. The _Bat_ Cave. Carrie wonders if this weird not-all-the-way-awake feeling is how Mom and Dad feel when they're high. If it is, she gets why they do it so much. It's like every good dream and every nightmare she's had all at once.

She's looking at the glass case with the Bat suit inside it. She knows she must look kinda gawpy, but it's difficult not to be. Batman can _die_. Batman _has_ died. And he's come _back_.

There's a sound behind her, a quiet throat-clearing. Carrie turns. Jason's there, looking beat up and bruised and exhausted.

She jumps at him and clings on tight, tighter than she's ever hugged anybody 'cept that stupid old bear she used to have.

After a moment, Jason gives a soft little sigh and hugs her back. Just as tight.

ii. _Tomorrow_

The training's tough. Carrie's not so good at the guns as Tim would like her to be. She's doing her best.

She saw a newspaper the other day. Her parents are in jail. She knows Tim did that, to see if she was tough enough. She's surprised he didn't kill them.

Her suit's heavier than she'd like. The lenses in her mask are made to the same prescription as the glasses she used to wear at school.

Carrie doesn't go to school anymore.

Last night she stopped three guys who were about to rape a girl who was the same age as Carrie. None of them are ever going to have children, by any definition of that phrase. The girl sobbed and said "thank you, Robin" about a million times. Carrie gave her a pill to stop shock and hysteria taking hold and sent her home in a cab.

Tim told her she'd done good work. He didn't call her Robin. He never calls her Robin.

iii. _Beyond_

"Aw, c'mon, I bet you used to go out dancing all the time when you got off patrol."

Terry gives a longsuffering sigh. "Not when I had a sprained ankle and a broken arm."

"Give it up. 'Possible hairline fracture' is not the same as a broken arm. And nobody moves their feet when they're dancing anymore, get with the times." Carrie glares. "You owe me three weeks' allowance, too."

The next time a supervillain tries to resurrect Bruce Wayne, Terry's going to let them do it. That way, he'll have a chance to shake the man and ask why, in the name of all that's rational, was a precedent set for Batman's dealings with athletic, bright orphans with nowhere to go?

"Robin," Terry says in a voice he usually reserves for when they're in-costume. "You aren't going anywhere. Your allowance will be transferred into your account first thing in the morning. You can train with the Clayface simulation for the rest of the night." He knows it's her favourite.

Her face lights up. " _Really_? Aces. Ter, you're the best boss I've ever had."

"I'm the only boss you've ever had, Carrie."

"Which is how come I can say you're the best and worst and not be telling a lie either way," she points out happily, and runs off to start the training program.

iv. _Strikes Again_

She's going to have some totally gross scars on her face. Carrie never thought she'd be the kind of person to think about plastic surgery, but she knows that it'll freak Bruce out if she leaves herself looking so beat-up. It'll remind him what happened.

Carrie kind of likes the idea of reminding him.

She didn't want to recover in some private secret hide-out. She wanted a real bed in a real hospital with real doctors and nurses, and she got it. It's amazing what people'll say yes to when you're nearly dead.

Her private room has a view of the gardens outside. The old lady from the psych ward who screams in the night is always walking laps around the flower beds. Carrie likes to watch her. The routine's soothing.

A man named Tim Drake's been by to see her twice. First time, he brought a photograph of a boy she never knew.

"Jason Todd," he said, and his tone told her everything she needed to know. She's a detective, after all.

"You and him were..." She felt her lip curl in disgust. He flinched.

"Yes." He didn't sound like he was ashamed. He's a detective too, with a private firm in the city. He gave her his card.

"Bruce never said Jason was... like that."

"Bruce never knew," Tim answered.

The second time was yesterday.

"I thought you might want to see what Jason looked like. To remind you that there was more to Robin than... what happened."

"There's nothing to Robin anymore. Robin's dead."

Her voice was bitter, so bitter even she was a little startled by it.

Tim merely nodded. "You can call me any time you want to, Carrie," he said, and he sounded kind.

Now, she looks out the window at the old lady and wonders what to do about the scars.

Robin's dead. She's alive.

She's not sure which of these facts scares her more.

v. _Kingdom Come_

Working at the restaurant is giving her enough extra pocket money to keep her in cheap video games and soda, and that's all she really needs. She feels pretty bad for some of the older kids who're trying to work their way through college on what's hardly more than tips, but figures there's gotta be other jobs out there somewhere for the people who really need them.

Carrie's been Robin for four months now. Before that, for the first couple of months she worked out the front (after six weeks of dish-dog work in the kitchen), she was some hero pretty much nobody's ever heard of. The Spoiler, all in purple with a big cloak and a mask that covered, like, half her face. Then the guy who was playing Robin had to go look after his Dad or something, so she got promoted.

Carrie likes being Robin. She gets more tips this way, because lots of the customers like to get an eyeful of her legs. The management wants her to dye her hair, but they can forget that. It's just a job. It's not like she owes them any loyalty or anything.

The guy playing Green Lantern asked her out yesterday. He's nineteen, and mostly Carrie doesn't go for older guys but he seems cool. He wants to go see a movie at the megaplex.

Carrie's planning to pay for the popcorn, seeing as how she's got more money to throw around than he does. He can owe her a favour.


End file.
